Katica Locke

My whole family knows, including cousins, grandparents, and great-aunts and uncles. Whether I wanted them to or not, lol. When my first book got published, my mother had to tell everyone. She still does--tells complete strangers in the post office or grocery store. Not sure if she's really proud of me or trying to shame me into writing something "more respectable". She was the only one that I was really nervous about outing my writing to. She's one of those right-wing, conservative Christian types, and as I was living at home at the time, it was a little tense for a while, but luckily she's also my best friend and (so far) always supports me even if she doesn't like or agree with what I'm doing. Some friends and coworkers know, but not many, mainly because I'm not a real social person.

Erotic fantasy romance. There's just something magical (pardon the pun) about a well-constructed fantasy world and realistic fantasy characters.

For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to be a teacher and an author. I had interests in music, art, photography, dinosaurs, and genetics, to name a few, but never as a profession. Mostly, my hobbies served as research for my stories. Now I'm an education assistant at an elementary school and a published author, so I'd say that's pretty close to achieving my childhood dreams.

Good first chapter. The narrator has a strong voice and the characters are interesting. The only criticism I have (and it's nit-picky little OCD thing, anyway) is the repeated use of "kind of". I counted 12 of them in this chapter. "Kind of" is a weak modifier, especially when used to vaguely describe something. "Kind of angry" isn't as precise as irritated, distracted, frustrated, annoyed, or peeved. That's just my opinion, though. I really enjoyed reading this and I look forward to the next chapter.

I have a bit of experience with this, actually. A while ago, I wrote a piece of online fiction that followed the daily life of a slave who worked for a mage in a magic shop. Each day brought new problems, but there was no real central plot with a main conflict, climax, and resolution. I wrote about 500,000 words of this ongoing story before I decided to turn it into a series of novels. It took some rewriting, and I'll be the first to admit that it wasn't a perfect conversion, but I did manage to divide it into five books, each with a more publishable format. Personally, if I fall in love with a character or characters, I want to read about them forever, as long as the plot and writing is of at least moderate quality. I'm a lot more forgiving of weak plot and mediocre writing if I like the characters.

Hello! I just wanted to reintroduce myself since I only just rediscovered the site after a five year hiatus. I now go by my pen name, Katica Locke, I'm a writer of gay fantasy romance and erotica, and I look forward to sharing some of my writing with a new audience.

Starting a new story is one of my roadblocks and it's gotten worse the better I've gotten at writing. Before I start writing, everything is malleable and intangible, but once I start, all those ideas become concrete and it all has to be as good as the last thing I wrote. I have to choose the right narrator, the right POV, the right tense, the right voice, the right opening scene, ect. There are so many thing that have to be "right", I'll just sit and stare at the screen for hours. I finally figured out that each time I start a new story, I have to tell myself that it's okay to be wrong. If something doesn't work out, I can change it later. That's how I get past that daunting blank page.

I've been attracted to boys for as long as I can remember. There have been a few girls that I had 'more than friends' feelings for, but considering that I've only had one boyfriend who lasted about a year, on and off, and I wasn't interested in going farther than second base with him, I'm beginning to think that I'm more attracted to the concept of romance and sex than the actual experiences. It's all I write about, but it's not on my to-do list, if that makes any sense. I guess I'm still trying to figure things out, but my sexuality, or lack thereof, doesn't bother me.

Mostly, I love it. I'm an Educational Assistant Substitute at an elementary school. I only work at the one small school, so I know nearly all the kids and faculty. It has a great family feel to it. Some days are bad, but mostly I enjoy it. Strangely enough, if I had to describe myself, I'd say I was a writer, and throw in the EAS as an afterthought. I love my job, especially because it leaves me a lot of time to write, but all things being equal, if I had to choose, I would be a writer.

Thanks TL The Writing Tiger!

Thanks Ieshwar! I'm so happy about being published, but it really sucked to have to take my stories down and to not be able to post any more. I'm an instant gratification kind of guy, and having to wait a year to see my book in print is driving me nuts, lol.

Personal & Other Relationships: That I'm being toyed with, that I'm going to invest more into the relationship than he does and that it's going to hurt when he leaves. So I hold back and leave him before he can leave me. I have major trust issues. I blame my mother The World: Heights: I don't mind being up high, but I cannot climb a ladder to save my life, not even a step-stool to get something out of a high cupboard. I also have this irrational fear that everyone is judging me and that I'm going to make a fool of myself. I might have social anxiety disorder. Internet: Not really. Maybe identity theft, but I'm pretty careful.

Voted hurt and cry for both. I love books, songs and movies that can make me feel something. Brokeback Mountain made me hurt. It made me feel hollow. Diane Duane's books often make me cry. Like TL The Writing Tiger, the last Harry Potter got me. It made me sob and ache for hours after I'd finished it. Anne McCaffrey's Pern seris has its moments, as well as Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality. My own writing can occasionally do that to me. In the last book I wrote, I needed a certain scene to be painful and raw, so I found a song that made me hurt and conveyed the futile desperation I wanted my character to feel, and then I listenend to it over and over while I wrote. It hurt and I cried, but it's one of the most powerful scenes I've ever written.

Thanks Graeme!

Hello. I actually joined a while back to post one of my stories, but I never got around to coming into the forums and introducing myself. I'm Edward and I write homoerotic fantasy romance novels. The story I posted, which I unfortunately had to remove so that I could polish it up for publishing, was called Once A Slave .... It's now being published by PD Publishing under the much improved title of Magebound. Anyway, just thought it was about time I said Hi!